T-64A

SKIF

Reviewed by Cookie Sewell

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Morozov was a driven man. One of the things driving him was that he was not the man who created the T-34 – the most beloved and respected tank of the Soviet Army. He had essentially led to its perfection, and used the concepts which went into the T-34 to create the postwar T-54, but he was still personally bitter that he was not the "father of the 34". As a result, he spent the last ten years of his career as a Soviet tank design bureau chief in developing a completely revolutionary tank to replace it in the minds of the Soviet Army.

The result of this work first emerged in 1962 as Object 430, which was a completely new concept in Russian tank thinking. It had a three man crew, a long-barreled 100mm gun with an autoloader, a flat opposed piston five-cylinder engine, and weighed less than 36 tons while providing better overall protection than any tank of 50 tons of the period could. But it was prone to problems, and the use of a 100mm gun – no matter how powerful – was vetoed when Marshal Chuikov selected the 115mm U-5TS for the T-62. The redesigned tank appeared in 1967 as the Object 432, which had vastly improved components. This tank was accepted for service as the T-64.

But the T-64 was not perfect, and so more redesign and modification took place. The tank received the 125mm D-81 tank gun, IR sights and searchlights, stereoscopic range finder, a remote control 12.7mm NVT antiaircraft machine gun, an improved engine, and a novel "flipper" armored shield which provided protection to the front 60 degree arc of the tank from ATGMs and HEAT rounds but added a minimal weight penalty – only one metric ton for all of the changes. This tank was accepted for service in 1969 as Object 434 or the T-64A. Later, after several improvements along the product line, to include skirts, smoke grenade launchers, and more external stowage, the weight increased to 38 metric tons. Finally, a redesigned version of the tank appeared in 1976 with a laser range finder and the 9K112-1 Kobra through-the-bore ATGM (AT-8 SONGSTER). Early T-64s were also rebuilt to T-64A standards as the T-64R in the same time frame. In 1985, the T-64B added reactive armor, becoming for a short period of time the most formidable tank in the world. But by 1991 the tank was obsolete, the production lines were long shut down, and the Russians began to scrap them as fast as possible.

This tank – which was initially known from fuzzy, windswept photos as the Soviet Main Battle Tank Model 1967 and often confused with the early T-72 – is one of the most innovate tanks of modern times. It is the "sportscar" of modern tanks, as it provided the same level of protection as either the M60A1 or Chieftain on a chassis weighing no more than 46 tons in its last variant. Troubled by an engine which had years of teething troubles, it was never very popular with Soviet troops. The early model autoloaders also had a serious problem with "eating" stray arms or uniform components. But Morozov did create a tank design which has directed Soviet and Russian tank design thought to this day – 40 years after he conceived the original concept.

This kit from SKIF of the Ukraine has been flitting in and out of sight for nearly a year now, but it is finally coming into more reliable supply in the West. The second 1/35 scale offering from this company behind a T-80UD, the model is very well done and bodes well for modelers in the future, as SKIF has a line of more Soviet and Russian armor products scheduled to follow. Instructions are in four languages – Ukrainian, English, German, and Russian.

The kit represents a mid production T-64A variant with IR lights, external stowage, and "flipper" armor. It does not have the Type 902A smoke grenade launcher set of 12 tubes on the front of the turret. Markings are included for essentially only one tank, but while the kit provides a total of four camouflage schemes, the correct one for this tank should be Soviet Army Green or Khaki #2 with white markings. The Guards insignia goes on the cover of the main searchlight.

Overall, molding is very good, with only the driver's hatch appearing to be undersized. Most details are crisp, but the two-piece external fuel drums would be better replaced by either Tamiya T-72 or any DML ones. Sink marks are minimal, but present on some of the suspension components, The self- entrenching blade is separate, and consists of five parts. The directions are hosed up on the installation of this component, however. The blade (C1-22) mounts with the "teeth" on top of the attachment points at the top of the lower glacis and the hinges engaged on the bottom of the belly plate (C1-25). The arms (C1-23) attach to the hinges on the blade and the mounts on the belly plate.

The hull and turret are pretty well done, and the only place the model is not as good as could be hoped for in an effort of this level are the "flippers" and the vinyl tracks. The "flippers" are way too thick – the real ones are only 8-10mm thick or .010-015"in scale – and beg for replacement. While dimensionally correct, the tracks suffer from ejection pin marks on their interior faces which are nearly impossible to eliminate (vinyl never takes well to sanding) and the surprising point that only every other link has holes in it. These holes are for attachment of railway flat car tie-down clasps, which secure the tanks to flat cars in a matter of minutes, and thus cannot be set to only fit part of the links. (They also saved weight which was one of Morozov's goals with this tank.) There are no track swaps that can be made, as the T-80 used solid link tracks and the DML T-80 series kit track links are way too wide (over 2mm too wide).

The kit does permit the entire range of T-64s to be built with some work, and this should make the day of T-64 fans.

For building Object 432 (T-64): leave off the searchlight parts, replace the gun with a T-62 barrel without the jacket, leave off the "flipper" plates, and replace the commander's (right side) cupola with a T-55 or T-62 type.

For building a late model Object 434 (T-64A): remove the side skirt parts and "flippers" and replace with T-72 type skirts less the heat shield on the left hand side; add the Type 902A smoke grenade launchers from any DML kit or a Tamiya T-72..

For building an Object 447 (T-64B): remove the right optic and fill in the resulting holes; add all of the late T-64A components plus a receiver box for the AT-8 installation in front of the right side commander's cupola.

For building an Object 447B (T-64BV): follow the steps for a T-64B and add 211 reactive armor boxes to the glacis (strip all details first except for the headlights and tow shackles), turret front, and skirts. The B model uses the Type 902B smoke grenade launcher installation of only eight tubes in two groups of four on the left hand side.

Hopefully the after-market boys will come out with kits for this one, as it could use etched brass sheets for the "flippers" and details. Note that few parts swap with T-72 or T-80 series tanks, so any purchase of kits for those tanks will not yield much in the way of useful parts.

All in all, a fairly nice kit and hopefully the beginning of a good new series.

Review by Cookie Sewell, June 1998.
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Page Created 22 June, 1998.
Last updated 22 July, 2003.

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